-Joe Offer-
Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index:
Wanderin'
DESCRIPTION: "My daddy is an engineer, My brother drives a hack, My sister takes in washin' An' the baby balls the jack, An' it looks like I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'." Tales of work and poverty, held together by the refrain "never gonna cease my wanderin'."AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes rambling nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 188-189, "Wanderin'" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 335-336, "Wandering" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 218, "Wand'rin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 281, "Wandering" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 59, "Wandering" (1 text)
BrownIII 507, "I Got de Hezotation Stockings and de Hezotation Shoes" (1 short text, with a verse and chorus from "Hesitation Blues" and a verse from "Wanderin'")
DT, WANDERIN*
Roud #4399
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Wanderin'" (Columbia 1585-D, 1928)
NOTES [47 words]: The total irrelevance of plot to this song is shown by the fact that Scott's version (which is mostly about the traveler's rambles, except for the line "If the Republicans don't get you, the Democrats must") shares only three lines, apart from the refrain, with the DT version. - RBW
File: San188
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The Ballad Index Copyright 2020 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
Here are the notes from Sandburg:
This peculiarly American song in text A (first 3 verses)is from Arthur Sutherland of Rochester, New York, as learned from comrades in the American Relief Expedition to the Near East. It is a lyric of tough days. The pulsation is gay till the contemplative pauses, the wishes and the lingerings, of that final line of each verse, and the prolonged vocalizing of "l-i-k-e." The philosophy is desperate as the old sailor saying, "To work hard, to live hard, to die hard, and then to go to hell after all, would be too damned hard." Text B (last 2 verses - snakes & ashes), also a lyric of tough days, is from Hubert Canfield of Pittsford, New York.
The Digital Tradition lyrics:
WANDERIN'
My daddy is an engineer,
My brother drives a hack,
My sister takes in washin'
An'the baby balls the jack,
An' it looks like
I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'.
I been a wanderin'
Early and late,
New York City
To the Golden Gate,
An' it looks like
I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'
Been a-workin'in the army
Workin' on a farm,
All I got to show for it
Is the muscle in my arm
An' it looks like
I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'
Snakes in the ocean
Fish in the sea,
Took a red-headed woman
To make a fool outa me,
An' it looks like
I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'
@rambling
filename[ WANDERIN
TUNE FILE: WANDERIN
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
